WinBoard 4.4.2 installer package available

[hgm]

WinBoard 4.4.2, the sources of which were already released last December, is now available as a Windows binary and an installer package from WB forum. The installer package is identical to the 4.4.1 package, except for 3 replaced files:

* winboard.exe is now WinBoard 4.4.2, with a few bugfixes compared to 4.4.1
* winboard.hlp is the new help file (which was still the 4.4.0 help in the 4.4.1 package)
* timeseal.exe is the version of timeseal fixed by Tim Mann

There are no new features in this version, as we have a feature freeze for the 4.4.x series; new features can be found in the development branch (e.g. the just released 4.20100118, which is not yet available as installer).

[hgm]

Beware that we just discovered that the compiler I had used to generate the WinBoard distribution binary is defective, in a way that affected the binary. (This holds for all 4.4.x versions so far.)

I have just uploaded a new version of the installer package and bare executable (labeled 4.4.2b) that have been corrected for this.

The issue is that the compiler did not correctly handle 64-bit integers. In WinBoard, the only place where such integers were used, was for the node count. In practice, this means that on reading the node count from the engine, the uppermost 32 bits can have any value, unreated to what was read. As on printing the 32 bits were aso ignored, this is not immediately visible in the reported node counts, except when they should indeed be > 4 billion. But it coud have showed in values derived from the node count by calculation, such as the reported NPS. In particular it could cause malfunctioning when playing under node-based time controls, where the entire time budget of an engine could suddenly disappear because an arbitrary multiple of 4 billion nodes was subtracted from it.

Sorry about this.

[ernest]

I have just uploaded a new version of the installer package and bare executable (labeled 4.4.2b) that have been corrected for this.

.
Do you have the download link? Thanks!

[hgm]

This is on our regular distribution site at the WinBoard forum, now that we are not allowed to host it at GNU anymore.

http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... 19&t=50387

[adams161]

I'm not really up on the whole gnu or open source world, but why can't it be hosted at GNU anymore? In this case i never knew what their requirements were in the first place.

Mike

[hgm]

It is their policy to obstruct distribution of 'non-free' software wherever they can. And timeseal.exe and timestamp.exe, which you need to connect to FICS or ICC, are not open-source. So a package that bundles WinBoard with timeseal and timestamp is not allowed on the GNU website.